PUL – Page 3 – Paddy Duffy Collection

Battle Of The Somme

2026-01-102026-01-12Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

The badge or insignia of the 36th (Ulster) Division most frequently seen in murals is the one on the left of this board in Ballyduff, combining a red hand on a field of shamrocks with the Union Flag and the harp of the Royal Irish Rifles. The simpler insignia of the 36th Division on the right is being seen more frequently – it features a left-handed red hand, while the other uses a right-handed red hand, as do the flags of Ulster and of Northern Ireland.

Ballyduff Gardens, Newtownabbey, replacing a painted mural seen in It Grows In Fields Where Valour Led.

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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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Remembering Is Not So Easy

2026-01-102026-02-03Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

On the anniversary of David Ervine’s death, January 8th, a new board was launched in his memory, with images of Ervine “yearning for peace” in the cages of Long Kesh, where he met Gusty Spence (the pair can be seen together in the middle of the first column of photographs).

After his release, Ervine turned to politics, running unsuccessfully as a PUP candidate for Pottinger in the Belfast City Council elections of 1985 (WP); he would eventually be successful in 1997. In 1998 he was returned by Belfast East in the Assembly election (ARK). He helped bring about the loyalist ceasefire in 1994 – which was read aloud by Spence (youtube) – and was pro-Agreement in 1998 (DIB | Guardian | Slugger).

The information about the Memory Chair sculpture makes mention of Ervine’s boots but it seems they have not survived the mothballing of the sculpture which was last seen on site – boots included – in 2014.

Montrose Street South, replacing the various pieces seen in late 2024’s Today, Everyday, And Always.

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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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Glen Branagh

2026-01-092026-03-06Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This memorial for Glen “Spacer” Branagh, launched on the twentieth anniversary of his death in 2021, is at the junction of Canning Street and Orchard Street, north Belfast.

For information and the earlier plaque on N Queen St, see Forever Young.

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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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Ulster Volunteers

2026-01-092026-01-16Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

These faded Armagh murals have the titles “UVF Gun-Smuggler 1913” and “Arms Training 1913”.

The gun-smuggling mural features not the 1914 gun-running on Clyde Valley – the ship that brought in the weapons and ammunition into Larne – but a motor-car. There was earlier gun-running or bulk gun-purchasing – 175 rifles were bought from Harrods by the Earl Of Lanesborough and sent to Enniskillen (Balaclava Street) and 500 rifles were brought from Manchester in August 1913 (Irish Bayonets). (See also History Ireland.) These perhaps used automobiles for distribution, and the Larne gun-running is described as the first time that the horseless carriage was used in a military operation – there were about 350 vehicles in the “Motor Car Corps” (Angelsey p. 3).

The location of the car, and of the ‘arms training’ in the second mural, are unknown. Here is a 1914 image (Getty) showing tents and a single machine-gun at Ballywalter. The sources of both paintings are unknown.

The murals date back to at least 2012 (see the Peter Moloney Collection).

Gough Avenue, Barrack Hill, Armagh

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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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Small Community, Big Heart

2026-01-022026-01-10Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This is a kids/community/mental-health mural on the sub-station in Edgarstown. The art was painted by young people from the area, organised by Edgarstown Residents’ Association in the summer of 2024 (Fb).

For more images of the Rangers mural, see Red Hand, Red Lion from 2024.

Also included is a pair of boards of the fence around Hayes Park. For close-ups (of an identical board a stone’s throw away), see In Deo Speramus.

Union Street, Edgarstown, Portadown

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Every Night All The Men Would Come Around

2026-01-022026-02-05Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

“The loyalist community will protect its residents and homes from: thieves, paedophiles, unwanted graffiti & domestic abusers.” The list of crimes makes no reference to denomination or ethnicity, but “loyalist” and the combined Union Flag (which is incorrectly rendered) and Ulster Banner suggest that the threat comes from those who identify insufficiently with the UK.

Possible background: BBC | LCR (Fb) | BBC

Corcrain Drive, Portadown

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Copyright © 2026 Paddy Duffy
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Ulster Says No!

2026-01-022026-02-10Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This is the scene at the Corcrain-Redmanville bonfire (Fb) site, along Drumilly Green, where the hut has been moved to the south side of the Green, to join the Union Flag and Ulster Banner.

The 2025 bonfire topped 100 feet in height (News Letter); collecting for the 2026 pyre has yet to begin.

Westland Road, Portadown

To Keep Our Country British

2026-01-022026-01-08Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This entry updates 2024’s Here Dead We Lie – the plaque to Boyle and Somerville remains as before (it was originally mounted in 2005) but all three of the boards have been updated. The two on the extremes have the same content as before, while the central board marks the “50th anniversary” of the death of “Volunteer Harris Boyle”, “eternally remembered by the officers and volunteers of Mid-Ulster UVF”. Both Boyle and Somerville were members of both the UDR and UVF; they were “killed in action” when the bomb they were planting on the minibus of the Miami Showband went off prematurely. A parade in Boye’s memory took place in Portadown (BBC). Surviving Showband members and their sympathisers also marked the anniversary – on July 31st, 2025 – with a service at the spot of the attack (BBC).

The boards are at the junction of Gloucester Avenue and Princess Way in Portadown – Boyle was from the Killicomaine estate; Somerville is individually commemorated in Moygashel.

Ulster’s Chosen Few

2025-12-292026-01-12Extramural ActivityLeave a comment

This entry updates the images seen at the end of 2022 (in Loyalist Movilla). The UDA board with hooded gunmen (above) remains as before but the tarp below it is new (though perhaps relocated from the Glen estate). The other two tarps are also new: “Newtownards supports British Armed Forces – They served us all” with the emblems of the Paratroop Regiment, the SAS, the RIR and the UDR, and, “North Down First Flute [Fb], LOL 111 Newtownards – Ulster’s chosen few”.

George’s Street, Movilla, Newtownards